Mr Badger and the Boubles Grand Hotel by Leigh Hobbs

Make sure you do read the imprint page - Boubles is proununced Boublay.

Begin with these very short videos where Leigh Hobbs talks about his newest book:

• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four

The dedication for Mr Badger and the Boubles Grand Hotel is to Leigh's friend in London Andrea Reece. I saw a post on Facebook which shows her delight over this inclusion. 

The end papers in this new full colour picture book are terrific. I am sure you and your young reading companion/s will have fun talking about disguises and trickery. And did Mr Badger really recognise young Sylvia? And the ending will give you a hint there might be more to come - well at least you can let your imagination enjoy the possibilities of this idea. 

Publisher blurb: Mr Badger is the Special Events Manager at the Boubles Grand Hotel which is about to celebrate its 175th birthday. The celebrations are only for grown-up, so young Sylvia Smothers-Carruthers is packed off to the seaside - or is she? Strange things start to go wrong at the hotel, including the doorman losing his pants and guests having to sleep in the lift, until Mr Badger tracks down the culprit to the Deluxe Suite, where he encourages the pest to assist with the special attraction entertainment to the delight of everyone - not the least dear little Sylvia. 

Image source: Allen and Unwin

Publication date 3rd November, 2026 AUS$26.99

Look at my list of labels for this post - tricks/trickery; deception; mayhem; pranks; and chaos. I am totally risk adverse and I utterly dislike pranks and any form of unkindness. This means Mr Badger and the Boubles Grand Hotel (and in fact the whole Mr Badger series) are not the 'right' books for me but that is what you would expect - I am an adult reader.  I'm sure though, that young children aged 7+ will really enjoy this new picture book and hopefully their school or public library will still have copies of the original easy chapter books published between 2010 and 2011. The library I visited had books 1-3. I have discovered a bind up version was also published back in 2015. 

I think this new picture book installment about Mr Badger and the naughty prankster Sylvia Smother-Carruthers will make a little more sense if you can read the previous books especially when you encounter Algernon the stuffed ape who is displayed in the foyer of the hotel. You can still buy the four chapter books.

Book One Mr Badger and the big surprise: Mr Badger is in charge of special events at a splendid old London hotel. When he and his assistant, Miss Pims, prepare for Miss Sylvia Smothers-Carruthers' seventh birthday party, little does Mr Badger know just what is in store for Sylvia, and for him...

Book Two Mr Badger and the Missing Ape: For longer than anyone can remember, Algernon has been standing absolutely still in his own special spot at the Boubles Grand Hotel. Everyone is shocked when he disappears. Can Mr Badger solve the mystery of the missing ape?

Book Three Mr Badger and the difficult Duchess: Mr Badger is not only the Special Events Manager of London's grand Boubles Grand Hotel - he is also the Manager of Special Guests.

Book Four Mr Badger and the magic mirror: Life is certainly full of surprises at the Boubles Grand Hotel. When Mr Badger discovers a mirror that is anything but ordinary, he learns more about his favourite hotel than he would ever have dreamed possible.

I do enjoy books about hotels. Here are some I highly recommend:

This post about book five has links to my comments about each of the titles in this series

The Incredible Hotel

Hotel Flamingo

The Sea-Breeze Hotel

Tales of Mr Walker

The Hotel Witch

Leigh Hobbs is the bestselling author of more than 20 books, including the iconic Old Tom, Mr Chicken goes to Paris and Horrible Harriet. As an artist, he works across a range of mediums, as well as writing and illustrating his children's books. Mr Chicken goes to Paris was shortlisted for the 2010 Prime Minister's Literary awards and has been a constant best seller at the Louvre Museum Bookshop in Paris. Old Tom has been adapted into an extremely popular TV series. Leigh Hobbs was the Australian Children's Laureate for 2016-17.